Image Processing

Chapter(3)
Part 1:Relationships between pixels

Prepared by: Hanan Hardan

Hanan Hardan 1
 Ch3: Some basic Relationships between pixels

Neighbors of a pixel

some of the points in ND (p) and N8 (p) fall outside the

image if (x,y) is on the border of the image.
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 Connectivity
 Two pixels are connected if:
– They are neighbors (i.e. adjacent in some
sense -- e.g. N4(p), N8(p), …)
– Their gray levels satisfy a specified criterion
of similarity (e.g. equality, …)
• V is the set of gray-level values used to
define adjacency (e.g. V={1} for adjacency
of pixels of value 1)
‫هذا يعتمد على مقدار القرب الذي تاخذه بعين االعتبار‬
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 Adjacency and Connectivity
 Let V: a set of intensity values used to
define adjacency and connectivity.
 In a binary image, V = {1}, if we are
referring to adjacency of pixels with value
1.
 In a gray-scale image, the idea is the
same, but V typically contains more
elements, for example, V = {180, 181,
182, …, 200}
 If the possible intensity values 0 – 255, V
set can be any subset of these 256 values
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 Ch3: Some basic Relationships between pixels

Adjacency
V: set of gray level values (L), (V is a subset of L.)

3 types of adjacency

 4- adjacency: 2 pixels p and q with values from V are 4- adjacent if q is in the

set N4(p)
 8- adjacency: 2 pixels p and q with values from V are 8- adjacent if q is in the
set N8(p)
 m- adjacency: 2 pixels p and q with values from V are m-adjacent if
1. q is in N4(p), or
2. q is in ND(p) and the set N4(p) ∩ N4(q) has no pixels whose
values are from V

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 Types of Adjacency
 In this example, we can note that to connect
between two pixels (finding a path between
two pixels):
 In 8-adjacency way, you can find multiple
paths between two pixels
 While, in m-adjacency, you can find only
one path between two pixels
 So, m-adjacency has eliminated the multiple
path connection that has been generated by
the 8-adjacency.

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 Types of Adjacency
 Two subsets S1 and S2 are adjacent, if
some pixel in S1 is adjacent to some pixel
in S2. Adjacent means, either 4-, 8- or m-
adjacency.

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 Ch3: Some basic Relationships between pixels

A digital path
 A digital path from pixel p with coordinates
(x,y) to pixel q with coordinates (s,t) is a
sequence of distinct pixels with coordinates
(x0,y0), (x1,y1), …, (xn,yn), where
(x0,y0)= (x,y) and (xn,yn)=(s,t), and
pixels (xi,yi) and (xi-1,yi-1) are adjacent
for 1 ≤ i ≤ n.

 n is the length of the path

 If (x0,y0) = (xn, yn), the path is closed.
 We can specify 4-, 8- or m-paths depending
on the type of adjacency specified.
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 A Digital Path
 Return to the previous example:

In figure (b) the paths between the top

right and bottom right pixels are 8-paths.
And the path between the same 2 pixels in
figure (c) is m-path
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 Ch3: Some basic Relationships between pixels

Connectivity
 S: a subset of pixels in an image.
 Two pixels p and q are said to be
connected in S if there exists a path
between them consisting entirely of
pixels in S.
 For any pixel p in S, the set of pixels
that are connected to it in S is called a
connected component of S.

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 Ch3: Some basic Relationships between pixels

Regions and boundaries

 Region
Let R be a subset of pixels in an image, we call R a
region of the image if R is a connected set.
000000
010010
011010
010110
000000

 Boundary
The boundary (also called border or contour)
of a region R is the set of pixels in the region
that have one or more neighbors that are not
in R.
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 Region and Boundary
 If R happens to be an entire image, then its
boundary is defined as the set of pixels in the
first and last rows and columns in the image.

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 Foreground and background
Suppose that the image contains K disjoint
regions Rk none of which touches the
image border .
Ru : the union of all regions .
(Ru)c : is the complement .

so Ru is called foreground , and (Ru)c : is

the background .

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 Ch3: Some basic Relationships between pixels

Distance measures
If we have 3 pixels: p,q,z respectively
p with (x,y)
q with (s,t)
z with (v,w)
Then:
A. D (p,q) ≥ 0 ,D(p,q) = 0 iff p = q
B. D(p,q) = D(q,p)
C. D(p,z) ≤ D(p,q) + D(q,z)

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 Ch3: Some basic Relationships between pixels

Distance measures
 Euclidean distance between p and q:
De(p,q) = [(x-s)2 + (y-t)2]1/2

 D4 distance (also called city-block

distance):
D4(p,q) = |x-s| + |y-t|

 D8 distance (also called chessboard

distance) :
D8(p,q) = max (|x-s| , |y-t|)
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Distance measures

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Example:

Compute the distance between the two pixels

using the three distances : 1 2 3
q:(1,1)
1 q
P: (2,2)
2 p
Euclidian distance : ((1-2)2+(1-2)2)1/2 = sqrt(2).
3
D4(City Block distance): |1-2| +|1-2| =2
D8(chessboard distance ) : max(|1-2|,|1-2|)= 1
(because it is one of the 8-neighbors )

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 Distance measures

Example :
Use the city block distance to prove 4-
neighbors ? 1 2 3
1
d
Pixel A : | 2-2| + |1-2| = 1 2
a p c
Pixel B: | 3-2|+|2-2|= 1
3 b
Pixel C: |2-2|+|2-3| =1
Pixel D: |1-2| + |2-2| = 1

Now as a homework try the chessboard

distance to proof the 8- neighbors!!!!
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 Distance Measures
Example:
The pixels with distance D4 ≤ 2 from (x,y)
form the following contours of constant
distance.

The pixels with D4 = 1 are

the 4-neighbors of (x,y)

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 Distance Measures
Example:
D8 distance ≤ 2 from (x,y) form the
following contours of constant distance.

D8 = 1 are the 8-neighbors of (x,y)

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 Distance Measures
 Dm distance:
is defined as the shortest m-path between
the points.
In this case, the distance between two
pixels will depend on the values of the
pixels along the path, as well as the
values of their neighbors.

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 Distance Measures
 Example:
Consider the following arrangement of
pixels and assume that p, p2, and p4 have
value 1 and that p1 and p3 can have a
value of 0 or 1
Suppose that we consider
the adjacency of pixels
values 1 (i.e. V = {1})

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 Distance Measures
 Cont. Example:
Now, to compute the Dm between points p
and p4
Here we have 4 cases:
Case1: If p1 =0 and p3 = 0
The length of the shortest m-path
(the Dm distance) is 2 (p, p2, p4)

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 Distance Measures
 Cont. Example:
Case2: If p1 =1 and p3 = 0

then, the length of the shortest

path will be 3 (p, p1, p2, p4)

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 Distance Measures
 Cont. Example:
Case3: If p1 =0 and p3 = 1
The same applies here, and the shortest –
m-path will be 3 (p, p2, p3, p4)

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 Distance Measures
 Cont. Example:
Case4: If p1 =1 and p3 = 1
The length of the shortest m-path will be 4
(p, p1 , p2, p3, p4)

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